


Right

by Ladybug_21



Category: Black Panther (2018)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-03
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2021-01-21 04:24:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21293603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ladybug_21/pseuds/Ladybug_21
Summary: T'Challa didn't realize that signing one human rights treaty could result in such a diplomatic headache.
Relationships: Nakia (Black Panther) & Okoye, Nakia (Black Panther)/T'Challa
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	Right

**Author's Note:**

> The outcome of my spitballing headcanons at [Shiguresflower](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shiguresflower) and [april_rainer (tom_bedlam)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tom_bedlam), after reading the [African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights](https://www.achpr.org/legalinstruments/detail?id=49) a while back and attending a lecture on the 2018 elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo around the same time. I own no rights to _Black Panther_.

It was a rare instance indeed when T'Challa's face didn't light up upon entering the same room as Nakia. Today, however, the King subjected both his beloved and his general to a fixed scowl as he stormed into the room where they were being held.

"My King," Okoye began, but T'Challa held up a hand to stop her.

"We will discuss this when we get home," he snapped.

Nakia and Okoye glanced at each other, then followed their sovereign out of the room, past the guards and onto their ship back to Wakanda.

"Well, it seems we are in hotter water than I'd expected," muttered Nakia, joining Okoye at a window of the ship as the sprawling streets and skyscrapers of Addis Ababa faded from view below the clouds.

"I still maintain we did nothing wrong," sniffed Okoye regally. "He gave us a directive, and we enforced it."

"True, but 'doing nothing wrong' usually does not end in being hauled before the African Commission," Nakia reminded her.

"I can't help it if the African Commission and I don't agree on what 'ensuring free and fair elections' looks like," Okoye retorted.

A monitor on the opposite wall of the ship turned on, and Shuri's face appeared on the screen.

"Where _are_ you?" she demanded. "You were supposed to be back yesterday, and my brother's not telling me anything!"

"Okoye has been honing her diplomatic skills," Nakia teased.

"Shut up," muttered Okoye.

"I saw the footage." Shuri grinned. "Looks like the upgrades to the spears worked, at any rate."

"A little too well," T'Challa grumbled, entering the room. Nakia and Okoye crossed their arms in a salute as T'Challa sat down and glared at them. "So. What exactly happened."

Nakia glanced at Okoye, who was glaring back at T'Challa.

"We landed in Kinshasa the night before the election," Nakia began. "The Dora Milaje were informed of their duties as election monitors and took up their positions at the polls the next morning. And everything was going well until the government ordered police in riot gear to go remove the Dora Milaje..."

"They play so dirty," Okoye spat. "Tear gas is a coward's weapon. But I should have expected nothing less of politicians so cowardly that they rig the elections."

"And at least you used those saline pods I sent with you, to counteract the tear gas quickly!" Shuri held up a hand to high-five Okoye for their sound preparation, remembered that she wasn't physically present, and so high-fived herself with a concluding fist pump.

"So the police arrived and threw tear gas," T'Challa repeated, ignoring his sister. "And?"

"And the Dora Milaje ensured that the elections remained fair and free, nonetheless," Okoye shrugged. "Surely that was your intention when you signed the African Charter and sent us on this mission?"

"I asked you to go maintain _peace_, Okoye!" T'Challa shouted. "Election monitors are _not_ supposed to disable an entire armed police unit using force. Now the government of the DRC is blaming me for trying to foment a political insurrection..."

"Ah, what idiots!" Okoye snapped. "They struck the first blow, and the international community expects us to have just turned the other cheek?!"

"You were not to incite any sort of international crisis on this mission!" T'Challa insisted. "It does not matter to Kinshasa that you took great care not to kill or seriously injure anyone; they are _embarrassed_, Okoye. This was not supposed to happen."

"My King," Okoye huffed, "you signed the Charter _because you wanted Wakanda to go enforce human and peoples' rights across Africa_. And you told me to go to Kinshasa and enforce the Charter, and that is what I did, because the Charter guarantees—what was it? 'The right to participate freely in the government of one's country, either directly or through freely chosen representatives in accordance with the provisions of the law.' If you don't like what the Charter says the law is, then you should not have called for Wakanda to ratify it, and you _certainly_ should not have sent a security force as reliable as the Dora Milaje to enforce it."

T'Challa opened his mouth to argue, then closed it again, looking distinctly ruffled. Okoye smirked slightly.

"Ohhhhh, you just had your ass diplomatically _handed_ to you, brother!" Shuri crowed from the screen.

"Come," sighed Nakia, seizing T'Challa by one arm and dragging him out of the room. "You must forgive Okoye, my King. She is so accustomed to being able to create her own solutions to problems."

"But she _knows_ she cannot do that anymore," sighed T'Challa. "We are constrained by the rules of the international system now."

"You know how Okoye feels about injustice, my King. She was bound to enforce the Charter according to her moral sense of right, unless you explicitly told her otherwise."

"Hmm. Then I will have to make my instructions concerning the scope of her mandate crystal clear next time."

"Yes." Nakia smiled. "We are all learning."

"Was it the right decision, to ratify the Charter?" T'Challa asked after a moment.

"Signing Wakanda up to help combat human rights abuses and governmental corruption across the continent?" Nakia shrugged. "Of course it was."

T'Challa wrapped an arm around her.

"Then I will stop worrying," he promised, "and we will normalize relations with the Congolese. And then we will figure out how to do this right, the next time."


End file.
